Private Banking är en banktjänst för förmögna individer och företag som syftar till att hjälpa dem med förvaltning av deras kapital men även andra tjänster såsom hjälp med deklarationer. Storbanker idag kämpar med att återfå kunders förtroende efter finanskrisen 2008 och fokusen på riskhantering har blivit viktigare. Kunder har blivit mer känsliga för risker och därmed försöker banker dra fördel av detta genom att skapa värde i riskhanteringsprocessen. I detta värdeskapande eftersträvar man en bra relation till kunden som därmed kan generera i ökade marknadsandelar.  Vår problemformulering i uppsatsen blir då följande: ”På vilket sätt kan den svenska storbanken Nordea öka sina marknadsandelar inom Private Banking med hjälp av riskhantering?” Syftet med vår uppsats blir därmed att få en djupare inblick i hur Nordeas Private Bankingtjänst arbetar med riskhantering och hur det påverkar deras marknadsandelar. För att kunna få denna förståelse har vi genomfört en kvalitativ studie i form av en fallstudie på Senior Private Banking Managern på Nordea. Valet av Nordea grundar sig på att de vann pris för bästa aktör i Norden samt att de är den största finanskoncernen i Norden. I uppsatsen har vi använt oss av en abduktiv ansats för att kunna få fram förståelse mellan vår teori och empiri. Slutsatsen i denna uppsats är att det är kommunikation av risker som är den viktigaste biten i riskhanteringen för att kunna öka marknadsandelar samt att kunna göra en korrekt risk- samt kundprofilering. Om detta görs på rätt sätt kan Nordea som storbank och koncern skapa förtroende samt värde för kunden som resulterar i kundnöjdhet. Agentteorin som bland annat regleras av fast lön resulterar dessutom i att rådgivaren tänker på kundens behov i första hand och gör att riskhanteringen fungerar. Vårt bidrag med denna studie är att vi har visat att Nordeas arbetssätt med riskhantering är värdeskapande för kunden och är en bidragande faktor till att deras ökande marknadsandelar. / Private Banking is a banking service for wealthy individuals and companies that aims to provide help with the management of their capital but also other services such as help with declarations. Today large banks are fighting to regain their customers’ trust after the financial crisis of 2008 and the focus on risk management has become increasingly important. Customers have become more sensitive to risks and consequently banks are trying to adapt to this and create value in the risk management process. In this value creation the aim is to have a good relationship to the customer, which in turn can generate into increasing market share. Our problem formulation therefore becomes the following in the thesis: ”In what way could the Swedish large bank Nordea increase their market share within Private Banking through risk management?”  The purpose with our thesis is to get a deeper insight in how Nordea is working with risk management and how it affects their market shares. To get this understanding we have done a qualitative study in terms of a case study on the Senior Private Banking Manager in Nordea. The choice of Nordea is based on the fact that they won prize for best provider of Private Banking services in the Nordic together with being the largest financial group in the Nordic. In the thesis we have used an abductive approach to get the understanding between our theory and empirics. The conclusion of this thesis is that communication of risks is one of the most important parts in the risk management to be able to increase market shares together with being able to do a correct risk and customer profiling. If this is done in the right way, Nordea as a large bank and financial group, could create trust and value for the customer that can result in customer satisfaction. The agency theory that among other things is regulated by fixed salary results in that the advisor thinks about the customer needs in first place and therefore results in an effective risk management work. Our contribution with this thesis is that we have shown that the way Nordea is working with the risk management is value creating for the customer and is contributing to an increase in their market shares.

Abstract Purpose This study is designed to determine whether managed care has had an influence on the number and distribution of procedures with demonstrated volume and outcome endogeneity in Florida healthcare markets; in addition, methods are developed to determine which measures of managed care activity best predict the impact of managed care on surgical procedure utiliation. Rationale A shift in surgical procedure volume on the basis of preferred provider arrangements has the potential to redistribute surgical procedures within hospital markets. The surgical procedures for which such a distribution could have the greatest impact on population health are those for which the volume of cases performed has a strong inverse influence on the outcomes observed. A shift in high risk surgical procedures to low volume hospitals could potentially reduce the number of cases performed at high volume centers and increase cases at low volume centers, adversely impacting quality in both. Methods A retrospective population based cohort design is used to capitalize on the variability among Florida metropolitan statistical areas between 1995 and 1999, a period which captured the full business life cycle of managed care plans in Florida. Multiple regression models are used to measure the impact of changes in managed care activity as measured by penetration, index of competition and consolidation on the change in the number and distribution of seven procedures for which volume is associated with patient outcome, controlling for socio-demographic and market factors known to influence surgical procedure utilization. Difference scores derived for each of the model variables were used to measure change from the baseline in 1995 to 1999. Post hoc analysis of the count data models was performed using the cases from all study years in a log linear generalized estimating equation to provide validation of the difference score approach. Key Findings Study procedure volume increased over the period, and remained a consistent proportion of the total inpatient surgical procedure volume. Procedure rate remained stable over the study period with substantial small area variation. Change in managed care concentration was consistently and negatively associated with procedure volume at both the MSA (&betaâ&beta = -19.67; p = 0.0489) and hospital level (&betaâ&beta = -4.088; p = 0.0027).Change in the total population and the number of specialty surgeons had a substantial, consistent and positive relationship to change in procedure volume at both the market and hospital level. The change in the index of competition was positively associated with change in hospital market share (&betaâ&beta = 0.1005; p = 0.05); whereas, neither change in managed care penetration nor change in managed care index of competition was predictive of change in procedure volume at the market level. The managed care variables were not correlated when difference scores were tested providing evidence that the managed care variables measure different constructs and behave differently. Implications As markets for managed care became more concentrated, the number of surgical procedures with volume and outcome endogeneity declined; the specific reasons for the observed decline require additional study. Competitive managed care markets have a favorable impact on hospital market share for these high risk, high margin procedures. Studies of managed care require consideration of the stage of managed care development in order to understand its influence and the use of difference scores as a method to measure change over time has substantial potential for the study of health care markets.

In Paper [I], we theoretically assess green public procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy instrument and its ability to lead to the achievement of environmental objectives. Central to our analysis is the extent to which polluting firms choose to adapt to the public sector's environmental requirements and to invest in greener technologies. Our main finding is that the potential of GPP to function as an objective-effective instrument of environmental policy is limited and can actually be counterproductive. From an environmental policy point of view, it is crucial that GPP aims for environmental standards beyond just the technology of the polluting firms and that it is designed with reference to defined environmental objectives. In Paper [II], we use data on Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts to provide novel empirical evidence regarding GPP and its effect on the potential suppliers' decision to submit a bid and their probability of being qualified for supplier selection. We find only a weak effect on supplier behavior, and this suggests that GPP, as used in practice, does not live up to its political expectations. However, several environmental criteria appear to be associated with increased complexity, as indicated by the reduced probability of a bid being qualified in the post-qualification process. As such, GPP appears to have limited or no potential to function as an environmental policy instrument. In Paper [III], I examine how GPP is organized in Sweden and how the potential suppliers respond to varying buyer market shares using data on Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts. The level of GPP stringency is found to vary systematically across authority types, buyer market share, and political coalition in the relevant council or in Parliament. The results also indicate quite a substantial dispersion in GPP stringency, suggesting a low degree of coordination among contracting authorities when implementing the policy. After controlling for GPP stringency and other covariates, increased buyer market share is associated with a significant increase in the probability of potential suppliers submitting a bid. The European Commission encourages public authorities to split procurement contracts into multiple contracts in order to increase the competiveness of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In Paper [IV], I use data from Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts to study the effect of contract size and number of contracts on SME participation and probability of winning. The results indicate that SME participation is negatively related to both contract size and the number of contracts in the procurement. A possible interpretation is that reduced contract size in order to stimulate SME participation is counteracted by reduced incentives for them to enter into procurements with multiple contracts. Medium-sized firms are also more successful when bidding for smaller contracts relative to large firms. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the award rate for SMEs is positively correlated with the number of contracts in the procurement. / Green Public Procurement: An Efficient Environmental Policy Tool?

This thesis comprises three papers examining the impact of competitive pricing or competition on participants in energy markets. The scope of each paper is narrow but focused, dealing with one particular aspect of competition in each market under study. It is hoped that results from these three studies could provide valuable policy lessons to public policy makers in their task to create or maintain competition in different energy markets, so as to improve efficiencies in these markets. The first and second papers examine the load shifting behavior of industrial customers in Ontario under real time pricing (RTP). Using Hourly Ontario Energy Price (HOEP) data from 2005 to 2008 and industry-level consumption data from all industrial customers directly connected to the transmission grid, the first paper adopts a Generalized Leontief specification to obtain elasticities of substitution estimates for various industry groups, while the second paper adopts a specification derived from standard consumer theory to obtain price elasticity estimates. The findings of both papers confirm that in some industries, industrial customers who are direct participants of the wholesale market tend to shift consumption from peak to off-peak periods in order to take advantage of lower off-peak prices. Furthermore, in the first paper, a demand model is estimated and there is evidence that the marginal effect of hourly load on hourly price during peak periods is larger than the marginal effect during off-peak periods. An important policy implication from the results of these papers is that while RTP is currently limited to industrial customers, it does have positive spillover effects on all consumers. The third paper uses a unique panel dataset of all retail gasoline stations across five Canadian cities from late-2006 to mid-2007 to examine the effect of local competition on market shares and sales of individual stations. The base empirical specification includes explanatory variables representing the number of same brand stations and the number of different brand stations within a 3km radius to identify brand affiliation effect. It is found that the number of local competitors is negatively correlated with market share and sales. More interestingly, a same brand competitor has a larger marginal impact on market share and sales than a competitor of a different brand. These findings suggest that additional local competition leads to cannibalization of market share among existing stations, rather than create new demand. Another implication is that relying only on the number of different brands operating within a geographic market could understate the competition intensity in the local market.

本研究是利用代理人基模型 (Agent-Based model) 結合遺傳規劃法(genetic programming) 在模組化經濟體系下價格動態對市占率之影響。現今企業多數以市占率作為公司在市場上表現的主要指標，如果擁有高市占率的廠商，可以確定在這產業中生存。以往的文獻顯示模組化經濟下高價格廠商在市場上的表現會優於低價格廠商，取決重要因素為品質，因為高價產品通常品質也較高，容易取得消費者喜愛。本研究想探討是否在這個體系下，消費者所考量的都是以品質高低來決定是否購買產品，是否會有過去以往的價格競爭情形，以及在價格動態體系，市場所呈現的風貌如何。本研究設計39組的加成率參數組，並依據兩間廠商的決策上製作成價格動態矩陣圖表。試圖以這些已知參數組與線性內插法所預測之市占率的參數組進行分析。此研究模擬中發現，在模組化經濟下，價格競爭並不一定會讓市占率趨向於某一點均衡，也可能會趨向於一條路徑上。而且不一定是高價位的廠商會有很大機會獲得市場，也沒有所謂的贏家擁有超高市占率的情況產生。 / This study is the use of agent-based model combined with genetic programming to explore the impact of the price dynamics for the market share in the modular economy. Nowadays, the majority of enterprises use market share as the key performance indicators in the market, if the enterprise has a high market share, it can be determined to survive in this industry. The previous literature shows that manufacturers of high prices on the market under the modular economy will be better than the low-price manufacturers, depending on the important factors for quality. Expensive products are usually higher quality, easily favorite by consumers. My study is to investigate whether consumers consider in this system are based on the level of quality to decide to buy the product or not, and whether there will be price competitive situation, as well as the outlook presented by the market price dynamics system. In this paper, we design 39 markup rate’s parameter set and making price dynamic matrix diagram in accordance with the decisions of two manufacturers. Trying to analyze these known parameter set and the parameter set of the market share predicted by the linear interpolation. The simulation of the study found that in the modular economy price competition does not necessarily make the market share tends to a equilibrium point, or it may also tend to be a equilibrium path. But not necessarily high-priced manufacturers get to the market, there is no so-called winners with higher market share.

We study the facial structure of the independent set polytope using the concept of conflict hypergraphs. A conflict hypergraph is a hypergraph whose vertices correspond to the binary variables, and edges correspond to covers in the constraint matrix of the independent set polytope. Various structures such as cliques, odd holes, odd anti-holes, webs and anti-webs are identified on the conflict hypergraph. These hypergraph structures are shown to be generalization of traditional graph structures. Valid inequalities are derived from these hypergraph structures, and the facet defining conditions are studied. Chvatal-Gomory ranks are derived for odd hole and clique inequalities. To test the hypergraph cuts, we conduct computational experiments on market-share (also referred to as market-split) problems. These instances consist of 100% dense multiple-knapsack constraints. They are small in size but are extremely hard to solve by traditional means. Their difficult nature is attributed mainly to the dense and symmetrical structure. We employ a special branching strategy in combination with the hypergraph inequalities to solve many of the particularly difficult instances. Results are reported for serial as well as parallel implementations.

Univ., Diss.--Kiel, 2002.

We study the long-term performance of companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange that announced their intention to repurchase shares between the years of 2005 and 2013. We test the hypothesis that the market underreacts to share repurchase announcements and that repurchasing firms consequently outperform the market in the following years. We find that repurchasing firms yield a cumulative abnormal return of 15.76 percent, significant at the 1 percent level, over the four years following the announcement. To address the concern that microcaps may be driving the results, we also investigate the differences in abnormal returns between companies of different sizes. We form three portfolios based on market capitalization and find that the large, medium-sized and small companies yield 14.34 percent, 20.13 percent and 6.61 percent respectively. / Vi studerar den långsiktiga avvikelseavkastningen för företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen som annonserat aktieåterköp mellan åren 2005 och 2013. Vi testar hypotesen att marknaden underreagerar på dessa annonseringar och att aktieåterköpande företag överpresterar marknaden de nästkommande åren. Vi finner att företag som återköper aktier ger en kumulativ abnormal avkastning på 15,76 %, signifikant på enprocentsnivån, under fyra år efter att företaget annonserat ett aktieåterköpsprogram. För att bemöta kritik mot tidigare anomaliforskning om att microcaps ofta snedvrider resultaten, undersöker vi skillnader i avvikelseavkastning mellan företag i olika storlek. Vi skapar tre portföljer baserat på företagens marknadsvärde och finner att stora, mellanstora och små företag genererar en kumulativ avvikelseavkastning på 14,34 %, 20,13 % samt 6,61 %.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:51:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 57859.pdf.jpg: 20237 bytes, checksum: bb85eb8c91e7be27a3f4611b6701be16 (MD5) 57859.pdf: 727631 bytes, checksum: 98a170021910c110e303412ad65d935e (MD5) 57859.pdf.txt: 221562 bytes, checksum: c50817d38d6be63fb738495f92abb5bb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-07-18T00:00:00Z / A questão do posicionamento de marcas é central ao processo de gerenciamento de marketing, pois produtos e serviços são adquiridos em grande parte em função da imagem que constroem na mente dos consumidores e clientes. Este trabalho busca explorar as relações existentes entre posicionamento de marca, preferências dos indivíduos e comportamento de compra através do tempo. Mais especificamente, ele se propõe a examinar as relações entre distância de uma marca ao ponto ideal num mapa perceptual e sua participação de mercado, e o quanto mudanças nessa distância através do tempo são acompanhadas de ganhos ou perdas de participação de mercado. Nessa tarefa são utilizadas técnicas de análise multivariada como o escalonamento multidimensional, a fim de elaborar os mapas perceptuais, e o mapeamento de preferências, a fim de localizar pontos ideiais nos mapas elaboradas. Também é utilizada a técnica de análise procrusteana, no processo de comparação de diferentes mapas perceptuais. Uma vez determinadas as distâncias das marcas ao ponto ideal e suas variações entre dois momentos no tempo, tais medidas são correlacionadas às participações de mercado das marcas, e suas variações. Os resultados obtidos no estudo empírico indicam que a variável 'distância ao ponto ideal no mapa perceptual' é boa candidata a um indicador de participação de mercado, presente e futura. No entanto, esta distância não se mostra um bom indicador das variações na participação de mercado propriamente ditas. Outro resultado interessante diz respeito ao conceito de equilíbrio entre a ordenação das marcas em função das distâncias ao ponto ideal e ordenação das marcas em função da participação de mercado, sugerindo que quando existe uma discordância nestas ordens, as participações de mercado das mrcas tendem a mudar na direção de reduzir este desequilíbrio. / The matter of brand positioning is central to the process of marketing management, as products and services are purchased a great deal due to the image they build in consumers and clients minds. This work aims to explore the relationships that exist between brand positioning, subject’s preferences and buying behavior across a period of time. More specifically, it proposes itself to examine the relationships between distance of a brand to the ideal point in a perceptual map and its market share, and to what extent changes in the distance of the brand to the ideal point are followed by gains or losses in market share. In this task, multivariate analysis techniques are employed, such as multidimensional scaling, in order to build the perceptual maps, and preference mapping, in order to determine the location of ideal points in the maps. Procrustean analysis is also employed in the process of comparing individual maps to each other. Once determined the distances of brands to the ideal point and its changes across two points in time, these measures are compared to the market share of these brands, and its changes. The results from the empirical study indicate that the variable “distance to the ideal point in a perceptual map” is a good indicator of market share, present and future. However, this distance does not represent a good indicator of the market share changes themselves. Another interesting result relates to the concept of equilibrium between ordering of brands according to distances to the ideal point, and ordering of brands according to market share, suggesting that, when there is disagreement between these two orderings, the market share of the brands tend to shift towards a reduction of this disequilibrium.

Le rachat d'actions est devenu au fil des années une opération financière répondue au même titre que la distribution de dividende. Toutefois, le rachat reste une opération complexe dont la recherche peine à apprécier les motivations et les conséquences. En effet, la décision de rachat est à la fois une décision d'investissement, de distribution, de structure de capital et un moyen de modifier la structure de l'actionnariat. Cette recherche se penche sur les motivations des opérations de rachat d'actions annoncées sur le marché français et analyses leurs conséquences et impacts sur le cours de l'action, les conflits d'agence et la structure de l'actionnariat. / The share repurchase has become in recent years an increasingly important instrument for distributing cash to shareholders. However, the repurchase is a complex operation whose research has difficulties to appreciate its motivations and consequences. Indeed, the decision to repurchase is an investment, payout, and capital structure decision and also the way to change the ownership structure. This research examines the motivations of buyback program of French market and analyzes their implications and impacts in stock price, agency conflicts and ownership structure.